Baba Ghanoush

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Baba ghanoush without yogurt and tahini sauce? Well, the one with yogurt and tahini is not baba ghanoush but is known as mutabbal. Both are great appetizers and are part of mezze, a spread of appetizers served in the Levantine countries. Served with piping hot pita bread, they make a perfect start for a meal. What we like most about mezze is the sharing aspect and the accompanying conversation while waiting for the main meal.

We served baba ghanoush at our annual barbecue and even those who said they do not like eggplants, were converted. Eggplants should always be cooked through, otherwise they taste terrible and have a horrible mouth feel. We used two methods to cook the eggplants: 1) baked in the oven and 2) fire-roasted and charred on the stove. Roasting the eggplant on the stove gives it a nice depth of flavour and is the common way of preparing baba ghanoush in the Levantine region. If you wish to have just a tiny bit of smoky flavour, you can roast the eggplant on the stove for 6 to 7 minutes then finish cooking it in the oven until soft.

Most often, healthy is not associated with tasty. This, however, is one such dish. We like the fresh taste from all the chopped vegetables, the nutty taste of good quality extra virgin olive oil, the sour taste of freshly-squeezed lemon juice, and the tangy sweetness of pomegranate syrup. This on top of properly cooked and creamy eggplant.

Slice the eggplant in half, then drizzle with 2 teaspoons of olive oil and sprinkle with a quarter teaspoon of salt and a quarter teaspoon of ground black pepper. Roast the eggplant in a preheated oven at 450°F/232°C for 45 minutes or until soft.

For a smoky flavour, fire-roast the eggplant on the stove top for 15 minutes or until soft. Turn every one or two minutes. For a less smoky flavour, roast for 6 minutes and continue roasting in the oven until soft.

Tightly wrap the fire-roasted eggplant in aluminum foil and let sit for 20 minutes. This will make the skin come off easily.

Peel the skin off the fire-roasted eggplant and chop it well.

Scoop out the flesh from the oven-roasted eggplant and discard the skin. Chop well.

Place the chopped eggplant in a sieve to drain.

Chop the vegetables. Drain the chopped tomatoes.

Place the chopped eggplant and all the chopped vegetables in a bowl.

Add the salt, lemon juice, olive oil, black pepper, pomegranate syrup, and minced garlic. Mix well and keep it in the refrigerator.

Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe. I have been cooking for years and it never occurred to me to keep the skin on when oven roasting the eggplant. Looks yummy and I can’t wait to try it, either way. But since you are saying that undercooked eggplant has a bitter and awful taste, I will go for the oven roasting. I solved the printing problem I had written to you about a couple of weeks ago. Turned out there was no problem except that I expecting a hand to appear on the entry when clicking on it and had a pleasant surprise tonight that I am indeed able to print all of your wonderful recipes. Keep up the excellent work and thank you so much for sharing your expertise and resourcefulness which you bring into all dishes, including the non-Somali ones.

This looks wonderful masha’Allah, I want to try making it tomorrow insha’Allah. Thank you so much for sharing. I use your recipes very often and have learnt a lot from you, jazakumullahu khairan.
I hope you don’t mind my making a request/proposing a suggestion – if possible, it would be wonderful if you could include the overall cooking (and perhaps) prep time of your recipes? Your website is one of my favourites. I wish you all the best.

Thank you so much for your nice comment. We are happy you like the website and that you found it helpful. Thank you for your suggestion. The cook and prep time are some of the things we hope to add to the website. Stay blessed!

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About (Annaga)Qui Sommes Nous نبذة عنا

We are a husband and wife team and we live in Canada. In a world full of food complications, we make cooking very simple. Our recipe videos will make your cooking easy, relaxed and enjoyable. We bring you the foods we love from Somalia and from around the world.